


Change of the Leaves

by radioaktiv



Series: Fallout Prompts [1]
Category: Fallout 3
Genre: Autumn, Developing Friendships, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23281414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioaktiv/pseuds/radioaktiv
Summary: The insistent wind took speed, causing papers and wrappers to drift about much like the makeshift curtains poorly covering the places where the lack of metal sheet made a window, and sending several warm-colored leaves dancing into the space in a fantasy-like feel. They swirled around inside with the momentum, then scattered over the bedrolls, backpacks and the battered floor, spattering life on the previously somber room. For this brief moment, the harsh reality that punished her at night was effectively engulfed in a colorful Autumn haze.He watched through squinted eyes as her face lit up and switched to bewilderment, a smile opening with the unabashment of a child at the sight of a toy.From Charomiami'sAutumn Fluff for 30 daysprompt! Charon sees how the safety of the Vault may not be worth the price of living a life sterilized from the world, as something as simple as Autumn shift captivates the Lone Wanderer completely.
Relationships: Charon (Fallout)/Female Lone Wanderer, Charon (Fallout)/Lone Wanderer
Series: Fallout Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1396564
Kudos: 17





	Change of the Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> This is a re-upload! Nothing was changed from the original.

Farren jerked immediately awake when a hand clasped her shoulder and shook her slightly, freezing in place when all she saw was the darkness under the sheets, reality and dreaming blending into one another and giving her oniric nausea.

“It’s just me.” Charon rasped quietly, helping her brain set a foothold on the real world. Farren felt her muscles still tense, but squealed a noise to let him know she’d awake, heart speedy in her chest.

Breathing deeply a few times to reestablish herself, she heard him drawing away, waited until she believed her expression wasn’t entirely pathetic, and then exposed herself to the open.

He watched her sit, sluggish but seemingly fine. She looked around in confusion, recognition of the dimly lit room making its way past the sleepiness.

“You were having a bad one.” He explained, veiling the truth of such understatement.

“Oh,” She mumbled, clearing her throat awkwardly. “Thanks, then.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Blinking through the drowsiness, Farren used her fingers to brush the locks of hair off her face, gathering them into one hand to tie everything in a bun as she scanned her surroundings and tried to make sense of space and time. Her eyes fell on her bodyguard’s bedroll, practically intact.

They exchanged glances for a moment, Charon’s brows furrowing as he already bitterly expected an accusing remark.

But the insistent wind took speed, causing papers and wrappers to drift about much like the makeshift curtains poorly covering the places where the lack of metal sheet made a window, and sending several warm-colored leaves dancing into the space in a fantasy-like feel. They swirled around inside with the momentum, then scattered over the bedrolls, backpacks and the battered floor, spattering life on the previously somber room. For this brief moment, the harsh reality that punished her at night was effectively engulfed in a colorful Autumn haze.

He watched through squinted eyes as her face lit up and switched to bewilderment, a smile opening with the unabashment of a child at the sight of a toy.

Farren completely ignored him then, standing with uncharacteristic speed for someone recently-woken from a bad night and hopped towards the window, taking the already insufficient curtains off the way.

Autumn breeze invaded the shack unrestrained, carrying wasteland dust, smell of wood and even more leaves inside. He covered his face with a hand before he got a blastful of dirt in the eyes.

Employee? Yes. Supposed to eat sand for breakfast? No.

“Don’t know in your Vault, out here we have food and not dirt in the morning.” Charon protested, shoving himself back where he was sitting with a gruff.

She barely took a peek at him, enamored with the outside.

“C’mon, it’s _pretty_.” She chided in that weirdly uplift manner of a misbehaving child. Charon grunted in response, but only just, taking it as an order and deciding not to argue.

She watched the vibrant scenery of orange, yellow and red against the skyline, oddly peaceful for a sunrise in the Capital Wasteland, leaning on the wall that complained against her weight, smile sprawled and unwavering.

Even though the annoyed stare never completely faded off his features, he couldn’t help but deflate at the sight. At some point - either seconds or minutes he didn’t keep track - the urge to prod at the unusual behavior was stronger than his wish of silence. “You Dwellers are weird.”

She snorted, face fully taken by yellow and purple hues and the sun continued its slow ascendance, and turned to stare at him through the corner of the eye. “It’s better than in the photos, alright?”

Charon quirked a brow at that. “What?”

“ _The leaves!_ ” She gushed. “The falling ones, I mean. They were always either in the trees or already on the ground in the books.” Her face went back to the outside, features still bright with admiration.

Oh, right.

What a weird life that was. Hermetically closed into a place of sterilized metal, safe yet imprisoned.

A few months ago Charon would have questioned anyone who tried to diminish the comfortable life in these Vaults, but that overenthusiastic vaultie was making him second-guess it. Maybe they had too artificial a peace and quiet for his liking.

“My friend and I used to make fake ones with paper and markers and throw them around to pretend it was Fall. This is way better.” She confided quietly, attempting to hold the cheerful expression but suddenly overwhelmed by the strange nostalgia that swept into her heart.

Looking down, Farren rubbed her fingers into one another, pulse daring to quicken as the distorted images of crumbling vaults and desperate yelling crept from her dreams into memories. Sometimes she hardly knew what had been real and what was a product of her imagination merging into them.

“Is it worth the price?” He asked, either out of impulsive curiosity or concern he tried not to think of it.

“Dunno,” Farren spared him a quick glance to try accommodate herself with the present again, licking her lips and looking outside to avoid his gaze. “But almost dying all the time sure puts some stuff in perspective.”

A strange silence fell between them. Not the usual silence when she’d stop her incessant babbling because he’d not been replying with matching excitement. He felt like he should say something.

Quite honestly, he hated it. It wasn’t a feeling nurtured out of contractual incentive.

“Hmpf, ya doing better than you think, kid.” He grumbled, sounding as if he was forced to say it.

This time, a smirk did pull the corner of her lips, and was constrained to not become a smile when she turned to peek at him again. Charon’s face did some weird, funny peeved twisting before he decided to stare elsewhere.

Farren tried not to giggle.

“A compliment, from you? Oh my!” Her quip made him _grumpier_ , and this only amused her further. “And don’t call me kid. Told you already.” Even when she was trying to order him about, she sounded merrily bossy instead.

He rolled his eyes, set in not giving into her friendly mood, even though he knew he’d just lost already. “Fine. Doing better than you think, _smoothskin_.”

He saw her smiling wider by the corner of the eye. Annoying vaultie.

“That’s better.” She turned once again to look at him over the shoulder, trying to look a little less pleased with herself. “And thank you, Charon.”

He merely grunted in response, scowl subsiding.

At least they weren’t in front of others.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos to my beta reader [lookbluesoup](https://lookbluesoup.tumblr.com/)! <3


End file.
